Farmer Co- designed strategies to reduce post-harvest residue removal for household use and restore soil fertility

Soil resource depletion and land degradation are key contributing factors to food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Novel conservation agriculture practices (CAP) encourage smallholder farmers to leave post-harvest residue in the field for the purpose of soil organic matter (SOM) restoration and soil water conservation. Many farmers understand the importance of crop residue retention for soil fertility. Due to resource limitations and everyday demands, retaining residues is often impossible because farmers remove crop residue primarily for household cooking and livestock feed (Kushwaha and Singh, 2005).